The good news is that during our trek down to Lake Tess, no monsters attack us. The bad news hits us once we arrive, looking out at the half-frozen lake on a shore devoid of the Tessie-watcher tents I remember from our journey.

"Doesn't look like we can get Tessie to help us through this ice," Ness says.

I glance up at him. "I don't suppose you learned how to teleport to the lab in the last five years?"

"Hey." Ness throws his hands up in surrender. "Poo couldn't figure that one out either. It's like the laws of the universe want to make our lives more annoying than necessary."

Annoying is putting it mildly. With our path blocked, we have no way of making it to the Rainy Circle sanctuary. We don't have any concrete proof that anyone we're looking for is there, but it looks like we'll have to abandon our best lead.

Unless. The way Ness is studying the ice tells me the same idea occurred to him. We both stand in silence for minutes, and eventually he's the one to speak up.

"We could walk across the ice," he says.

I let out a sigh. "All right."

"Look, I really am sorry that I can't teleport anywhere else in Winters. I'm sure you remember me complaining about it back during our adventure, and it bothers me as much now."

"Honestly," I say, looking out at where the water merges with the pale blue sky, "This is exciting."

Ness's eyes flit towards me. "Really?"

"Compared to news stations picking apart my appearance and telling all of Eagleland? This is real. I know what it means to win and lose. And…"

And I'm doing it with the person who's been occupying my thoughts for the past five years. Someone I gave up ever being good enough for. Someone I cut out of my life without ever telling him why. Someone who still smiles at me after it all.

"Good." Ness's shoulders relax. "Let's do this, then."

Ness steps out onto the ice. I wince in anticipation at each step he takes on the thin ice, but it doesn't break. I follow out after him, sliding and losing my balance as soon as I do. I fall forward, but instead of hitting the ice a strong arm scoops me up around my chest and sets me upright.

I come face to face with Ness, his hands steadying my shoulders.

"You all right?" he says.

"Um. Yeah." I pause. "Thanks."

"Why don't you hold my hand? I went ice skating with Jeff and learned how to steady myself with telekinesis by pushing on the ice. Should work even with sneakers on."

I can tell he's trying to make me feel less awkward with that last bit. All these years and he's still a pro at moving on from the embarrassing mishaps that come with adventuring.

"Right," I say.

Ness grabs onto my hand, his grip strong enough that I barely even register the chill of his skin. He gives my hand a reassuring squeeze before leading me out on the ice. I continue slipping and falling, but Ness pulls me up each time before I hit the ground. Eventually I get tired of tripping over my own two feet and get close to Ness so he can hold my waist and keep me from teetering in the first place.

As I press myself closer into his side, I tell myself it's because his large frame shields me from the frigid wind. I almost believe it.

We continue moving forward on the frozen lake, and before long we draw near the far shore. I was so worried about falling through the ice, but it looks like we're almost in the-

"Why do you resist?"

I tense up, glancing around. "Do you hear that, Ness?"

"Why do you attach yourself to another? The ties that bind you to him are chains. Let go and transcend."

All right, that's the same telepathy I got from the Starman in Twoson and Apple Kid. This time when I look around I remember to glance up and see a Starman floating above us.

"Answer, Paula. Will you join us?"

I begin concentrating on a Freeze PSI to catch this thing off-guard and blast it.

"Your intentions are clear. Starstorm Ω."

Shit. Time to change my approach.

"PSI Shield Ω."

A protective sheen covers me and Ness, and only once the energy meteors start falling do I realize my mistake.

They're not aimed at us.

Water erupts from the lake as meteors slam into the ground around us. I feel my feet leave the ground, and it takes me a second to realize that Ness has scooped me up and is running forward. Some of the meteors do draw near us and reflect back at the Starman, and it poofs out of existence as explosions sound overhead.

Looking down at the ice, I see cracks running through as the energy meteors upend more and more of the frozen sheet. Ness steps on one while running towards the shore, and I see the ice part.

Oh no.

Numbing cold hits my skin first, and then my lungs. As I blink my eyes open and struggle to see in the blurry water, I realize that I swallowed some of it. That decreases the time I have to mere seconds. I've never been a strong swimmer, but I at least know how to float. All I have to do is get to the top and-

My head hits against ice.

That's when the panic sets in. If I can get back to the hole Ness and I fell in, I know I can get out. But with my eyes stinging from lakewater and my lungs screaming for air, all I can do is flail.

Looking up through the ice, I see a figure above.

Vibrations pulse through the water, familiar and comforting. Wait. I know this sensation. This is Ness's PK Rockin. If I can feel it in my spine, that must means he used it on-

The ice shatters, and I surface. I cough and gasp for air, my lungs unable to take enough water in or expel enough out. An iron grip around my wrist pulls me up, and as I rise out of the water I see Ness standing on a tiny patch of ice surrounded by water and the shattered remains of the frozen sheet that his PK Rockin tore apart. He's also soaked, but somehow his baseball cap and backpack are still on.

Ness looks up, and I follow his gaze to see the Starman floating back in the sky. How are we ever going to fight this thing if it can weave in and out of the battlefield as it wishes? It may look like a regular Starman, but this thing is shaping up to be more dangerous than entire legions of aliens we fought in Stonehenge.

"Time to go," Ness says. "Teleport α."

With what little breath I have, I let out a cry of alarm. Teleport α is going to send us rocketing forward, and all that's around is frigid water.

But instead of falling back into the lake, Ness wraps an arm around me and jumps as we burst forward. The momentum allows us to clear the several yards of water in front of us, and we land back on solid ice. We continue accelerating towards the shore, the world around me becoming a blur.

And then as soon as we step on solid land, Ness steers us straight into a rock shelf. He twists so it's the far side of his body that slams into the barrier, absorbing the blow and leaving me unscathed. Ness lets out a grunt and drops me.

Only then as I scramble to my feet do I realize that Ness ran into terrain on purpose to interrupt the teleport. The burst speed from teleport let us escape to dry land, but he hasn't given up on making it to Rainy Circle.

"Into the cave," Ness says. "If it follows, we'll at least see it coming."

Right. Ness runs up into a nearby cave entrance, and I follow. Ness waits at the entrance once inside, looking out for signs of the Starman. After I bolt in after him and a few seconds pass, his shoulders relax.

"I think it's gone for now."

I take the opportunity to look around, and I notice that the rocks inside the cave are organized in a neat path. Oh, this must be the maze Brick Road made that Jeff mentioned traversing before getting the Sky Runner to meet us. Good thing he reminded us to bring the Pencil Eraser so we could bypass it when we came here as a group.

"All right," Ness says. "Clothes off."

I blink, then look back at him. "What?"

"We'll freeze unless we take off our wet clothes and warm up." He pauses. "Or we could teleport out to Summers, but we'll have to cross the lake again once we get back."

And there's every chance that Starman might attack us again if we do. I get where he's coming from, but…

"Do we have to take all of our clothes off?" I say.

"Underwear can probably stay on." He pauses. "We can leave if you want."

That's when my adrenaline wears off and the cold hits me in full. My teeth start chattering, and my fingers are trembling.

"Yeah," Ness says. "I shouldn't force you through this. Let's go somewhere warm and-"

"No. I'm not giving up now."

I begin stripping down to my underwear, too cold to even be embarrassed. Ness does the same, and I use a steady stream of psychic energy to form a small fire so we can warm up. The good news is that creating warmth requires a lot less effort than setting scorching flames on enemies, so I barely notice the hit to my energy reserve.

Once we warm up, the situation sets in. I'm nearly naked, and so is Ness. We're both sitting on a grimy cave floor, and our clothes are a sopping mess over in a corner. I don't mean to stare at Ness, but with us huddling close to my mini-flame artificial heater there's not much else in my field of vision.

And honestly, there's not that much new. I could already see the strength in his arms and legs from when he was wearing a t-shirt and shorts. But it's different when I see how his limbs flow into the rest of his body. How the strength projected by his good posture permeates throughout his whole body.

He really is the spitting image of a hero.

"Bet I look weird without my cap, huh?" Ness says. "I'm terrified to look in a mirror."

Okay, there is that too. Maybe that's the bigger factor causing me to reassess how he looks. There's just so much… hair on his head when it's not being covered up by a baseball cap.

Ness does a better job than I do of not leering, but when his gaze falls on my upper arm I remember what's there. I look down at my tattoo of ice, fire, and lightning symbols transposed over each other. It's so high up that it's basically on my shoulder, hidden whenever I wear so much as a t-shirt.

"You have thoughts on it?" I say.

Ness hesitates. "Looks cool."

"That's all?"

He shrugs. "I'm sure the tattoo artist did a great job but I'm also not going to lie and act like I have an eye for that sort of thing."

"No, that's not what I meant." I press a finger to the tattoo. "After I got it, my dad said you called him wanting to tell me how to make better life decisions."

"Paula." He frowns at me. "I'm your friend. I assumed it was obvious that I told him whatever was going to get him to hand you the phone."

I blink. It should have been obvious. Of course Ness isn't scandalized that I got a nice little symbol of my PSI inked out on my skin. So why did I never stop to question what was going on when my father told me that?

"Is that why you avoided me for five years?" Ness says. "You thought I was going to chew you out for living your own life?"

And now the guilt of being so stupid is a burning sensation in my stomach.

"I'm sorry," I say. "I should have trusted you. I don't even know why I didn't."

Ness's expression softens.

"I hated the way they treated you on TV," he says. "News stations and talk shows filling time by ranting about how getting a tattoo makes you a bad influence on kids or some other bullshit."

Silence follows. Ness sighs, and then shakes his head.

"So much about this world makes me angry. Every week I think about that scandal a few years ago where Onett's mayor Pirkle took advantage of his aide. How the news made it out as an 'affair' and broadcasted to the whole damn country how this young woman is a slut instead of focusing on the way Pirkle abused his power over someone vulnerable."

I stay quiet. That story lives in my mind as well.

"Then there's the incident where someone leaked Venus's nudes on the internet, and for some reason she's the one who comes under fire from it." Ness clenches his jaw. "And in both cases, it wasn't only the media hounding them. I'm sure you heard about this too."

I frown. Another detail about those stories did stick with me.

"I remember," I say, "That even their closest friends turned on them. Other young women who could have been targeted and hurt in the same way, but decided that it had to be the victim's fault even when it was their friend under fire."

Ness nods. "So I don't blame you for hiding from me when I could have done the same. That's the world we live in."

Is… that why I ran away?

"And," Ness says. "It's not like I can judge anyone else for not wanting their friends to see them at their lowest moments."

His expression turns dark and his gaze goes to the ground. What does he mean by that? I give up racking my brains when I realize he could be referring to any event in his life that I missed in the last five years.

"But," Ness says, looking up at me. "I hope you know that I'm here for you. Whatever you need, I'll fight for you. No questions asked, no strings attached."

The weight in his words are so staggering that I fumble through processing the implications. All I manage in reply is a numb nod.

"Now," he says, grin returning to his face. "How about we use some of that heat you can conjure to dry our clothes so we can get out of this cave and save our friends?"

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in. Compared to working through my own emotions, conjuring miracles with my mind alone is downright trivial.

"Sounds like a plan," I say.